Remotely-controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus



1961 D. w. ELLIOTT REMOTELY-CONTROLLABLE SUPPORTING MEANS FOR DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF APPARATUS Filed Dec. 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ELLIOT T DARIUS W- Feb. 28, 1961 D. w. ELLIOTT 2,972,891

REMOTELY-CONTROLLABLE SUPPORTING MEANS FOR DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF APPARATUS Filed Dec. 19, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR DARI US W. ELLIO T T ATTORNEYS REMOTELY-CONTROLLABLE SUPPORTING MEANS FOR DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF APPARATUS Darius W. Elliott, Omaha, Nebr., assignor to Elliott Manufacturing Company, Omaha, Nebn, a corporation of Nebraska Filed Dec. 19, 1958, Ser. No. 781,781 4 Claims. (Cl. 741) This invention relates to remotely controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus supported thereon. More particularly, this invention relates to remotely-controllable means for supporting and directing microwave and other radio frequency transmitting antennas or receivers having highly directional characteristics. Although the invention will be explained with particular reference to the support and directing of such transmitting or receiving antennas, it will be understood that the invention has other applications.

Live television programs, such as sports events, news events, and the like, frequently are televised at the location by a mobile unit which transmits the program by directional microwaves to a receiver located at a television broadcast station. At the station the program is rebroadcast from a large transmitter in the usual manner. The mobile television units frequently employ a portable tower on which is mounted the usual directional microwave antenna which must be directed or aimed precisely at the microwave receiving antenna at the main broadcaststation. It is obvious that it would be highly advantageous to provide some means, that could be controlled from the ground, for aiming the microwave transmitting antenna.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a remotely-controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus supported thereon.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a supporting means that has a high degree of accuracy of control, is easily mounted upon a mobile tower or the like, is rugged, strong, and substantially weather-proof, is compact and economical to manufacture, and is easily operated.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a side view, partly in vertical section, of a remotely-controllable support embodying this invention.

Figure 2 is an end view of an upper portion of the support shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the support shown in Figure 1, with parts broken away to illustrate details.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a generally rectangular base plate to which is secured, adjacent an edge 12 thereof, an upright post 14. The latter may be secured to the plate 10 by screws 16 extending through a circumferential flange 18 welded, or otherwise suitably secured, to the base of the post 14. Surrounding the post 14 and mounted thereon, by upper and lower anti-friction bearings 29 and 22, for rotation about a vertical axis is a sleeve-like pedestal 24. The lower bearing 22 has its inner raceway seated on an upwardly facing shoulder 26 adjacent the base of the post 14, and its outer raceway engaged by a downwardly facing interior shoulder 28 at the lower end of the sleeve portion 30 of the pedestal 24, as shown best in Figure 1. The outer raceway of the upper bearing 20 is seated against an interior upwardly facing shoulder 32. in the sleeve portion 30 and the bearing is retained in place by a washer 34 engaged with its inner raceway and held in position by a nut 36 threaded onto a reduced upper end of the post 14. The upper end of-the pedestal sleeve portion 30 is closed by a cap 38 that is retained in place by set screws 40.

ing, on its opposite ends, a pair of ears 46 depending. from the underside of a generally rectangular shelf-like supporting bracket or mounting plate 48. The shaft 44 may be retained in place by nuts 50 threaded onto its opposite ends, while the plate 48 preferably is provided with a plurality of apertures 52 therein, at least one adjacent each corner, for the reception of bolts to fasten to the plate apparatus which needs to be directionally controlled, such as the microwave transmitting antenna 54 shown in dotted lines in Figure 1. In this connection, it will be seen that rotation of the pedestal 24 on the post 14 serves to traverse the radio frequency beam emitted from the antenna 54, i.e., control the horizontal direction of such beam, while tilting the bracket 48 on the shaft 44 serves to elevate or depress the beam, i.e., control the vertical direction of such beam.

A sector 56 having a 180 arcuate peripheral section 58 and a straight peripheral section 60 (Figure 3) is formed by two side plates 62 spanned, slightly inwardly of their peripheral edges and secured thereto as by welding, by a web 64. The plates 62 preferably are cut out, as at 66, as shown in Figure 3, in order to save weight, and may be reinforced inwardly of the peripheral web 64 by a stiffener 68, as shown in Figure 1. The side plates 62 of the sector 56 are provided with aligned circular openings, coaxial with the center of curvature of the peripheral section 58, which snugly receive and are welded to'the pedestal sleeve portion 30, also as shown in Figure 1.

A generally L-shaped shelf-like supporting bracket 70 has one edge of an upstanding flange thereof secured, as by welding, to the base plate 10 adjacent that edge thereof opposite its edge 12. Secured on top of the bracket 7%, as by bolts 72, is a reversible weatherproof electric motor 74 having a weatherproof reduction gear housing 76 fastened directly to one end of the motor housing. The gear housing 76, as is conventional, contains a reduction gear drive (not shown), one end of which is connected directly to the shaft of the motor 74 and the other end of which terminates in an output shaft 78. The output shaft 78 depends from the gear'housing 76 in spaced adjacency to the arcuate peripheral section 58 or" the sector 56 and parallel to the rotational axis of the pedestal 24. Secured on the shaft '78 is a small drum or spool 80 about which are wrapped one or more turns of a cable 82 which then extends in opposite directions along the arcu-ate section 58 and thence along the straight section 64} of the sector 56 to terminate in stud fittings 84 which extend through separate apertures in a fastening plate 86 spanning the sector side plate 62 and are retained in position by nuts 88.

From the foregoing construction it will be seen that operation of the motor 74 will serve to rotate the sector 56, and thence the pedestal 24, through a 180 range of movement in one or the other direction, depending upon the direction of rotation of the motor. Likewise, it will be seen that because of the reduction gear drive between A similar reversible waterproof electric motor 90 is mounted, as by bolts 92, on top of the sector 56 and also has a reduction gear housing '94 securedzdirectly to the housing of the motor. The reduction gear drive in the housing 94 has one end thereof connected to the shaft of the motor 90 and the other end thereof terminating Patented Feb. 28 1961 in a horizontally extending output shaft 96 disposed parallel to the axis of pivotal movement of the mounting plate 48 relative to the pedestal 24. Secured on the output shaft 96 is a crank arm 98 having one end of an adjustably extensible and contractible link 1th} pivotally secured thereto. The other end of the link tilt) is pivotally connected to an arm W2 which constitutes a depend ing extension of one of the bracket cars 46. Thus, it will be seen that operation of the motor 9?: will tilt the plate 43, throughout a range of the order of 16, in one direction or the other depending upon the direction of operation of the motor. Likewise, it will be seen that because the crank arm 98 is much shorter than the arm 102, and also because a reduction drive is efiected by thev gears within the gear housing M, a very fine degree of tilting adjustment of the mounting plate 48 can be had.

The 16 range of tilting adjustment of the mounting plate 48 is ample for microwave antenna application, while the 180 range of horizontal traverse adjustment is ample for substantially any application because a mounting base (not shown) on which the base plate 10 is supported usually can be oriented before installation, or, if the base plate it} is not fastened down, it can be oriented to an approximate direction. It will be realized, however, that the range of tilting adjustment can be increased by increasing the ratio between the lengths of the crank arm 98 and the arm 1%.

Power supply and control conductor cables 1% and 106 extend from the motors 74 and 90, respectively, to a Weatherproof junction box 108, that is secured to the base plate It) beneath the shelf portion of the bracket.

70. From the box 108 a third conductor cable lltl (Figure 3) extends to any desired remote location, at which point power is supplied to the cable 119 for supplying both of the motors 74 and 9t) and also at which point controls are connected to the cable 110 for controlling both of the motors selectively and individually.

In use of the foregoing apparatus, the base plate lit readily may be carried on a truck (not shown), or on top of a portable tower (not shown), and a microwave transmitting, or receiving, antenna 54 can be bolted or otherwise suitably secured to the directionally-controllable mounting plate 43. At the same time, the control and power supply cable 110 for the entire unit extends from a suitable control point on the ground to the junction box 108. The antenna then can be controlled from the ground with extreme delicacy in order to aim such antenna with a high degree of precision toward any desired point.

It thus will be seen that the objects of this invention have been fully and effectively accomplished. It will be realized, however, that the foregoing specific embodiment has been shown and described only for the purpose of illustrating the principles of this invention and is subject to extensive change without departure from such principles. Therefore, this invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. Remotely-controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus supported thereon, comprising: a base support; an upright post mounted to said support; a tubular pedestal enclosing and rotatably mounted on said post; a first reversible electric motor mounted to said support; a reduction drive between said motor and said pedestal for rotating the latter to a limited extent by operation of said motor; a bracket for supporting apparatus to be directed; means securing said bracket to the top of said pedestal for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to that of said pedestal; a second reversible electric motor; means mounting said second motor to said pedestal; and a reduction drive between said second motor and said bracket for pivoting the. latter by operationof said second motor.

2. Remotely controllable supporting means for dimetional control of apparatus supported thereon, compris ing: a support; a pedestal; means mounting said pedestal to said support for pivotal movement about an upright axis; a first reversible electric motor mounted to said support; a reduction drive between said motor and said pedestal tor pivoting the latter by operation ofsaid motor, said drive including a sector mounted to said pedestal coaxially with said upright axis, a shaft driven by said first motor adjacent the periphery of said sector and parallel to said upright axis, and a cable wrapped about said shaft, extending therefrom in opposite directions about the periphery of said sector, and having its opposite ends secured to said sector; a bracket for supporting apparatus to be directed; means securing said bracket to the top of said pedestal for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to said first-mentioned axis; a second reversible electric motor; means mounting said second motor tosaid pedestal; and a reduction drive between said second motor and said bracket for pivoting the latter by operation of said second motor.

3. Remotely-controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus supported thereon comprising: a support; a pedestal; means mounting saidpedestal to said support for pivotal movement about an upright axis; a first reversible electric motor mounted to said support; a reduction drive between said motor and said pedestal for pivoting the latter by operation of said motor; a bracket for supporting apparatus to be directed; means securing said bracket to the top of said pedestal for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to said firstmentioned axis; a second reversible electric motor; means mounting said second motor to said pedestal; and a reduction drive between said second motor and said bracket for pivoting the latter by operation of said second motor, said drive including a shaft driven by said second motor adjacent the base of said pedestal and parallel to the axis of pivotal movement of said bracket, a crank arm on said shaft, a depending arm fixed to said bracket, and

a link between said crank arm and the lower end of said 7 depending arm.

4. Remotely-controllable supporting means for directional control of apparatus supoprted thereon, comprising: a support; a pedestal; means mounting said pedestal to said support for pivotal movement about an upright axis; a first reversible electric motor mounted to said support; a reduction drive between said motor and said pedestal for pivoting the latter by operation of said motor, said drive including a sector mounted to said pedestal coaxially with said upright axis, a shaft driven by said first motor adjacent the periphery of said sector and parallel to said upright axis, and a cable wrapped about said shaft, extending therefrom in opposite directions about the periphery of said sector, andhaving its opposite ends secured to said sector; a bracket for supporting apparatus to be directed; means securing said bracket to the top of said pedestal for pivotal movement about an axis perpendicular to said first-mentioned axis; a second reversible electric motor; means mounting said second motor to said sector; and a reduction drive between said second motor and said bracket for pivoting References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,407,310 Lundy et al. Sept. 10, 1946 2,410,831 Maybarduk et al. Nov. 12, 1946 2,512,636 Flynt June 27, 1950" 2,706,781 Goss ..-Apr.-19, 1955 

